Episode 203: Smollop: The Sodder Children
Gareth: Wrangling ten kids during a fire?Dave: Not like you’ve ever done it.Gareth: Well…not ten!
http://traffic.libsyn.com/thedollop/The_Sodder_Children.mp3
No matter how bad your worst Christmas was, it was never this bad—
Family drama, green bowling ball presents, weather drama, more family drama—
Never. This. Bad.
Since there are so many children, details are confused between official stories, family stories, and rumors, and two of the children share their parents’ first names, here are the actual lists, listed presuming the missing children died in the house fire:
Died:
Maurice, age 14
Martha age 12
Louis age 9
Jennie age 8
Betty age 7
Lived:
Sylvia, age 2
Marion, age 17
John, age 23
George, age 16
andJoe, the eldest, who was not at home, serving in the Army at the time
The Children Who Went Up in Smoke: Very detailed breakdown of the aftermath of the investigation at the Smithsonian, with photographs of the billboard and flyers
Because it’s difficult for me to riff off of missing/deceased children (for too long, anyway), taken either way on Christmas eve, here’s some Christmas horror movies for your viewing pleasure. You’re welcome:
Black Christmas (1974) — old school creepy, ’70’s style
Band names from this episode:
Crazy Insurance Salesman
Dynamite Box
Pretty Bananas
Spine Yard–neogrunge, reminiscent of Alice In Chains, first hit = “4 and a Spine”
Bone the Dirt
Handful of Teeth
Cultural references from this episode:
Michael Jackson’s hair (more fire)
Friend of the Dollop (FOD) alert: Neighbor podcast episode: Thinking Sideways October 15, 2015. Their approach to mysteries is to lay out all the facts, then review every theory, no matter how improbable.